Verisimilitude.

Verisimilitude: noun - the quality of seeming to be true or real.

As I've commented in the past, one of the hallmarks of a good science fiction author is the ability to extrapolate from a development or event to a future in which that development has created an unexpected result. My standard example is a writer in the 1930s who is able to look at the newly popular horseless carriage or "car" for short, and somehow make the leap of imagination to cloverleafs, traffic jams, oil wars, and road rage shootings.

That being said, previous to the events of the last two years, I would have been surprised if I read a novel set in a pandemic apocalypse, and the author described a situation where a significant percentage of the population refused the preventative vaccine.  Similarly, I wouldn't have expected those people to vigorously protest the vaccine process itself, along with objecting to mask mandates, vaccine passports, and all the other controls and safeguards recommended by the medical community and set in place by the government in hopes of controlling the virus. Who could have imagined that as a believable scenario?

 

And yet, someone came close to calling it.

Capitol Hill was in a state of uproar over the Plague. National policy was non-existent. Some states were quarantining Plague victims, other were doing nothing. Some states were testing people at their borders, other were calling this a violation of the Constitution. Some Representatives were calling for a national health identity card, others considered this a civil rights outrage. Christian groups were calling for a national quarantine policy. Plague victims rights groups were calling for an end to all restrictions on their free movements. Dozens of test cases were moving ponderously towards the Supreme Court.

The quote is from Norman Spinrad's satiric short novel Journals of the Plague Years, originally published in 1988*. The concept is an homage to Daniel Defoe's 1722 book A Journal of the Plague Year, a first-person narrative of the events of the bubonic plague in 1665 London. Spinrad's story focuses on a different plague from the 80s: Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, more commonly known as AIDS. In Spinrad's story, AIDS has become a virulent menace that has decimated the population of the United States.  The general population no longer has sex with other people, only mechanical substitutes, and San Francisco has become a combination prison/palliative hospice for the infected.

Spinrad's ability to predict the same sort of chaos and lack of logic that surrounded the COVID-19 response is brilliant.  Unfortunately, it also demonstrates that someone was able to look at that kind of a scenario and anticipate exactly the way things would unfold - kind of a sad statement about human nature.

- Sid 

* Astute readers will recall this book from my guide to what not to read during a pandemic - ironically, since that posting I've now read it. 

It's pronounced "Shooty".

The BBC has announced that Jodie Whittaker’s replacement in the role of the Doctor on Doctor Who will be 29-year-old Scottish-Rwandan actor Ncuti Gatwa. Gatwa came to public attention with his portrayal of Eric Effiong on the Netflix series Sex Education, which earned him a Scottish BAFTA award and several Television BAFTA nominations.  It's a noteworthy resume, but not a lengthy one - but then Matt Smith was three years younger and even less of a known quantity when he became the Doctor in 2010.

There's been a bit of backtracking as eager reports of Gatwa being the first black actor to play the Doctor were retracted in favour of "cast to play the Doctor on a permanent ongoing basis" or similar circumlocutions in order to recognize Jo Martin's stern depiction of the Fugitive Doctor* for the last three seasons of Doctor Who.

Regardless, Gatwa's casting in the role represents yet another milestone, and demonstrates the flexibility of the concept behind the Doctor.  As we move into the future, the Doctor may be the perfect cultural touchstone for a new generation: fluid in gender, race and sexual orientation.

...naw, who am I kidding, it's going to be Loki, isn't it.

- Sid

* I actually would have been quite happy to see her continue in the role full-time as a result of the upcoming regeneration, but I gather the current explanation is that she's the original incarnation of the Doctor.  Sigh...it's been a confusing few years with Chris Chibnall in charge.

The Revenge of the Fifth: Darth Violin.

And they were quite good, too.

- Sid

May the 4th 2022: Local Hyperspace Routes

I always appreciate it when companies get involved with things like May the 4th.  I realize that their participation is based in marketing and public perception, but it also humanizes the organization in question - after all, someone has to have the interest and knowledge to suggest an idea and the knowledge to execute something suitable.

As such, I am proud to present the BC Translink May the 4th Hyperspace Skytrain Map:

It's quite thoughtfully done, right down to the little light saber on the Translink logo - but shouldn't Alderaan be marked as out of service?

- Sid

May The 4th: "Well, of course I know him. He's me."

May 27th will see the release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+ - "long awaited" is far overused in these situations, so let's go with "eagerly anticipated" instead, just for the sake of variety.

You have to wonder a bit why Disney wouldn't release the show today, it seems like such a logical move, but I recognize that there may be imperatives other than May the 4th tie-ins in their broadcasting strategy.

The series takes place ten years after The Revenge of the Sith, so presumably Obi-Wan has been either on the run or in hiding for all that time.  He looks a bit lost in the trailers:  tired, worn, and presumably suffering from guilt, depression and anger regarding the fall of the Empire and the destruction of the Jedi.

He may be seeking redemption by watching over and training Anakin's son, but it looks like Luke's Uncle Owen is not eager to give Obi-Wan access to his adopted nephew - after all, his last padawan's track record is hardly the best testimonial for acquiring another apprentice.  This is a smart move, because it explains why Luke only knows Obi-Wan casually as a crazy old hermit who lives on the other side of the Dune Sea.  

It also looks like Obi-Wan will have other things to worry about.  The trailers feature the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors from the Rebels animated series, with their distinctive armour and double-bladed rotated lightsabers. (Come to think of it, Obi-Wan's presence on Tatooine as Luke's guardian has already been used as a plot point in Rebels.)  

And that reveals the greatest challenge that the series faces.  As we've already learned with the prequel trilogy, it can be confusing when there's a lot of future history* already in place.    According to the official Star Wars timeline that's included with the announcement (see below), Obi-Wan Kenobi comes before Rebels, so anything that happens in the new series has to avoid contradicting seven movies and four streamed series worth of plot development.

Similarly, Obi-Wan Kenobi witnesses the return of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, which is an interesting decision - really, anyone could wear the armour, but I appreciate that it offers some opportunities for further exploration of the conflicted relationship between Vader and Kenobi as portrayed by the original actors.  However, any encounter between the two is unlikely to provide closure, given that we all know what's going to happen in A New Hope. 

Issues of future continuity aside, I sincerely hope that the show will address the one great mystery from Episode IV - why was everyone calling him Ben?

- Sid

* "Future history" is one of those terms that you get used to in these situations.

And now, without further ado:

THE OFFICIAL STAR WARS TIMELINE NOT INCLUDING A TON OF BELOVED LEGACY MATERIAL THAT IS NO LONGER CANON AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

Me?

 As part of my company's employee engagement process, we took part in a Gallup™ poll which uses our answers to create a Strengths profile.

Apparently my top five strengths include the fact that I like to collect things and that the future fascinates me.  Imagine my surprise.

Hopefully we're not paying too much for the unearthing of these deeply, deeply buried personal mysteries.

- Sid

What if Julie Nolke caused the pandemic?

Does everyone know who Julie Nolke is?  Her YouTube™ channel went viral, as they say on the interwebs, when she posted her Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self video in April of 2020.  She's done six sequels in which Future Julie once again delivers the latest bad news to Present Julie (or Present Julie to Past Julie, time travel can make that sort of designation hard to manage). 

But what if this is a tragic (and catastrophic) example of the Butterfly Effect?  Here's the scenario:

At some point in the present, Julie6 contracts COVID-19, but visits her past self before testing positive.  In a domino chain of time jumps, Julie infects Julie again and again, until eventually one of the Julies infects pre-pandemic Julie Prime with the virus.  In the video, Julie2 doesn't actually tell Julie Prime what's going on behind her odd lifestyle advice (ironically, to avoid the Butterfly Effect), so she's unaware that her symptoms could be anything other than a standard Canadian cold, albeit a worse case than usual.  

Julie Prime innocently goes out to Toronto's Chinatown for dinner, regardless of her odd loss of sense of taste, where she infects a waiter, who infects his brother, who then flies to China to visit relatives...and the rest is history, at least in 2022.

Funny how this sort of thing never comes up on Doctor Who - surely there's a possibility that one of the companions may have had a touch of alien flu during one of the Doctor's visits to Earth's past, perhaps circa 1347 or thereabouts?

- Sid

Whatever.

 

From the Bakka-Phoenix bathroom: good policy all around, really.  (And, surprisingly, not the first bathroom signage featured on this blog.)

- Sid

Four Day Geekend 2022: Conclusion.

My last shopping stop for the 2022 Toronto trip is Bakka-Phoenix Books, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. I didn't notice that there was still a used book section in my last trip, so I'm hoping to spend a bit of time there and find some of the more obscure replacements for my collection, as per the ongoing (and apparently never-ending) book cataloguing project. 

Unfortunately, the store's been closed over the Easter weekend, my flight home leaves at 4:00 PM, and they don't open their doors until 11:00 in the morning.  It shouldn't be a problem, I just need to keep an eye on the clock and make sure that I have enough time to grab my luggage from hotel storage and get down to the Union Pearson Express train at Union Station for the 1:00 PM departure at the latest.

I'm confident enough that I don't camp on the doorstep - as I mentioned in my Silver Snail posting, that makes you look a bit overeager - but I'm there within ten minutes of opening.

I've done some pre-shopping research, so I stop at the New Releases display to get a copy of Escape from Yokai Land by Charles Stross, in hardcover at $26.99.  Not a crazy price for hardcover, really, and it's part of Stross' excellent H.P Lovecraft-meets-John le Carré Laundry series, which I've quite enjoyed and is overdue for a new book in the Bob Howard narrative. At least, it's not a crazy price until you get to the store and discover that it's only 96 pages.  I take a hard pass and head downstairs to look at the used book offerings.

The lower area is a bit industrial, rather like visiting someone's partially finished rec room.  Based on the setup, it's being used for signings and other public events in addition to housing the used books and TV/movie franchise material.  Having enough space for group events is a smart addition, things used to be quite cramped at the original Queen Street location - maybe I won't recommend that they move back after all.

I'm a bit surprised to find that even Canada's best known science fiction bookstore doesn't have a comprehensive catalogue of used books, at least by my standards - in fact, I don't see anything on the downstairs bookshelves that's of interest.  

However, I don't leave empty-handed, although I'm a bit concerned about loading too much more into my carry-on luggage.  I pick up A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, the third novel in K. J. Parker's entertaining fantasy series in trade paperback, and a signed copy of Memory's Legion, the postscript to the Expanse series that collects all the short stories and novellas that act as grace notes to the main storyline.  In addition to it being signed, at least at 432 pages for $35.00 I feel more like I'm getting my money's worth out of the purchase.

Coda:

I pay for the books, charge out the door and up to the Spadina subway stop, switch to Yonge, jump off at Dundas and collect my luggage, jump back on, and it's straight down to Union.  It's a bit of a hike from the subway exit to the Pearson platform, but I still make the 12:30 train.  It conveniently stops at my terminal, NEXUS gets me through security in short order, and I'm at the gate with lots of time to spare.  Good to see that I've kept my skills through two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

- Sid